I’ve just had a piece published by the bimonthly online Stir magazine, talking about the failings of mainstream media and conventional politics and what we can all do about both.

I like the look of what they’re doing a great deal at Stir – there are tonnes of long-form articles I read all the way through to the end, something I find I do rarely given the tyranny of the internet coupled with my addled brain. The April 2012 issue has plenty more again.

Fraudcast News

An ex-Reuters reporter, he relates how getting into and out of conventional journalism opened his eyes to the realities of his chosen career.

On the way he found how mainstream media, including his former employer, were far from being the public watchdogs of power they like to pretend. Quite the opposite – the bulk of their work blinds people to their powerlessness in the face of modern politics, at every layer of government.

Yet this is a hopeful story, including a plan for how people can make their own media and lay claim to their political voices.